Archive for January 2010

This is a video of Bob Dylan’s concert at Newport Folk Festival back in 1965. He asked the audience for a harmonica and somebody did bring it. In the ’60s people bring harmonica to a concert? How cool was that!

On the other hand, Mr. Tambourine Man is one of the coolest of Dylan’s songs. I think it captured very nicely a youth’s restlessness for adventure, more than anything else. Although for some it might sound like a song about weeds and LSD. But for me, the forst time I heard this it sounds like somebody’s hoping for an adventure.

I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.

Cheers,

Jonx.

p.s. I know most of you who read this will find that my taste is sometimes uncommon. But I did enforce the taste of classic movies to some friends, so I’m gonna say the same thing on this. If you can’t take ’60s music, bear with it for a while and read the lyrics, slowly you’ll find appreciation in it and suddenly it’ll sound real cool. Mostly it’ll work if you have a bit of interest to history or prominent figures in the past (not like Napoleon but more like MLK).

p.p.s. After this post I will start on doing something a bit different. It’ll be more like blogging but in a different way. Just wait and see..haha…

I have an interesting writing project from Elvinto but I have to postpone doing it despite the already complete material.

You know most of the time when you post something about how you are feeling now, your words are not enough that people tend to see it in many different ways? There’s no better way to do it than through a song. If you only listen closely to the lyrics.

gonna spend the night trying to sleep to the sound of The Beach Boys. I don’t understand how complicated recording Pet Sounds was, but I know that it’s great and you should get the whole album. This is my personal favorite, I think not because I like it best but it just sounds so right this time being.

I’m bloody tired.

I wanted to show how independent I’d grown now, but that’s not me

Ah, bloody tired.

Just something before crashing off. The Beach Boys is great. People should know them more. And kids these days should listen more to the ’60s or ’70s. I wish I was there.

Cheers,

Jonx

p.s. big bunch of thanks for the wallet. I really really like it. Even though knowing I’d get a wallet beforehand makes it less exciting (yeah, you just can’t keep surprise secret, huh?). But really, like it. =)

p.s.s. big sorry I put the thanks in a p.s. I think I should write something specially for you. But wait until I have an idea to do something funny, okay?

It is true that we, the facebook generation, sometimes feel closer to people with whom we are connecting every day through the internet no matter how far they are from us.

When our family first moved to our house now, we couldn’t get a telephone line. I wasn’t clear why, but I guessed the connection had been too crowded in the neighborhood that adding up a new line would be more costly. So it was deemed unnecessary, especially it was in year 2000 when cellphone started to spread. Then a decade passed. When internet connection was easily available via Telkom Speedy, we didn’t have a telephone line yet. But now, you don’t need a phone line to have unlimited connection. It was a year ago, a local provider gave an internet service promotion at Rp 300,000 /mth without charging for the receiver and router. That was totally affordable for most household in town, including ours. As ironic as it might sound, I now write and post this up at home, but you still have to reach me on my cell, with which I can’t call you since I haven’t topped-up the prepaid. Yes, we’re moving through time with or without a phone line, a car, and an annual family vacation.

That place where we ate was not a restaurant. It’s just a house, normal Chinese house in the Chinese populated area of the town. They only have 3 tables inside which is never enough. So we sat in their living room, with a 20″ made in China TV, a fan that seemed to be older than me, a fairly new Honda, and a tiny kitchen just right beyond the staircase where a kettle was boiling. Outside, three families were eating. All came with brand new, shiny cars.

People do get richer in this town, judging from the increasing number of traffic jam every time I go back. Honda Jazz is everywhere, sneaking around the town traffic with bulky Toyota Innova or huge Nissan Xtrail and Honda CRV of the slightly wealthier. The cars are battling the fierce traffic with motorcycles everywhere. All the Supras, the Yamahas, the Suzukis (name all the Japanese families) , they are getting more and more since now you can take one back with a mere half million rupiahs of down payment. And don’t forget the fancy houses. In a conservative town like this you still couldn’t find apartments (but I heard one is on its way). But house is a must to show wealth. Shiny tiles, high fence, huge pillars, with architectural style that only the designer thinks it’s artistic.

But back to our little dumpling house, inside it was as if time never moves. They’ve been selling the same dishes for God knows how long (I think 15-20 years?). In place like that, the taste don’t change. Neither do the ice cream. Doesn’t really matter how many billions the people in this town had made, inside they’re still struggling to make the same penny with the same old recipe. Only prices are adjusted to inflation.

So businesses have been good for a lot of people in town. But it doesn’t work for everybody. I know that papa’s bankbook was never big enough to send any of his kids to any good college out of town (I was just lucky enough peeps). And it’s not getting any better now. It’s still the same old struggling for the same penny at home, too, with the same old office in the old neighborhood now full of expensive cars. So despite now my sister does play facebook and update her twitter status almost every hour in school break, the other part of the house is somehow, stands still in time.

the first time change came in 2000s, they built this in town

Eventually it’s the economic change that affect our town the most. I’m not really sure yet how they did it, I guess it started with loggings, illegal loggings, many logistics businesses, big retailers who sell things from sugar to underwear to all the middle class families, export and import of practically anything (from fertilizer to instant food), raw commodities of rubber or palm oil somewhere in Tayan, the three-stars hotels, and anything else they can turn into gold. Some thought on this were, money enables people to change their life culture. Ten years ago junk food was the food for wealthy people. Now, junk food is for everybody middle-classed. Wealthier people look for traditional home-made dumpling and go for an expensive vacation to Singapore or China or Thailand. And they send their kids to study in Malaysia or Australia. My thought is, our parents bring the economic change and the kids, the foreign educated ones, bring the cultural and lifestyle changes.

I live in between the change and the stillness, so it is more evident to me than others. I practically live in a foreign country now, but back home there’s always this feeling of good ol’ days. And I still slightly more believe in the depth of mind rather than depth of pocket. God knows whether or how long it will last.